9

Creating Tendons 1097
might have two control points attached to each of
the lef t and ri ght clavicles.
Pr ocedur es
To create and attach a tendon:
1.
Go to the Tendons sub-object level. In t he
Selection Level grou p of the Tendons rollout,
turn on Link.
2. In a viewport, select a link.
3. In the Insert Settings group, click to turn on
Insert.
4. In a viewport, position the cursor over the link.
The cursor changes to a small star.
5. Click to create cross sections on the link.
6. Click to turn off Insert.
Tip: Yo u c a n a l s o r i g h t - c l i c k i n a v i e w p o r t t o
turn off tendon creation.
7. In the Selection Level group, turn on Cross
Section.
8. Use the Rotate tool to rotate the cross
section so the control points are positioned in
useful places.
9. In the Tendon Parameters group, use the Radius
spinner to scale the cross section radially so the
control points fall close to the surface of the
skin.
10. In the Selection Level group, turn on
Control Point, then in a viewport, select one
or more control p
oints.
11. In the Edit Comma
nds group, turn on Attach,
then in a viewport, click a different link.
Tendons span the area between the links.
12. Adjust the Pinch, Pull, and Stretch settings to
adjust the skin behavior.
13. Adjust the Upper and L ower Boundary
settings to control the extent of the effect on
neighboring links.
To a tta ch a tendon to a nother l ink :
1.
In the Selection Level group of the Tendons
rollout, turn on Control Point to make it the
active selection level.
2. In a viewport, select one or more of the tendon’s
attach points.
Click a point to select it; use
Ct rl +click to add
points to the selec tion; or drag a rectangular
region to select multiple points.
3. In the Edit C ommands group, turn on Attach.
4. In a viewport, click the link to which you want
to attach the tendon.
In the viewports, red lines appear showing the
tendon’s connection from its base to the other
link. The skin mesh might also deform as a
result of attaching the tendon.
Tip: The tendon can have fixed attach p oints
that are not connected to another link. These
are useful for giving some rigidity to the skin,
aswhen(inanactualbody)aboneliesclose
to the skin’s su rface. For example, you might
leave two fixed attach points on either side
of a character’s chest area, to simulate the
effect of the sternum. When all tendons are
attached to other links, the skin over the base
linkcanhavea"squishy"appearancewhen
it is animated. This is appropriate for some
animated characters, but not for others.
To delete a tendon:
1.
A t the Link selection lev el in the Tendons
sub-object, selec t the link that has the tendon
you want to remove.
2. In the Insert Settings group, click Delete.